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Is it possible to dry up from improper latch?

Hi ladies. This is my first post since my
DS1 weaned a couple years ago. I now have a brand new 13 day old baby girl. I am
Having to relearn a few things about breast feeding. I am literally typing thru tears right now bc I fear that I have dried up. I nursed ds1 very successfully for 15 months, even after returning to work I pumped and still continued to BF for all that time. Well I thought since i was so successful the first time around that i would know what I was doing this time around as well. When I have birth to DD almost 2 weeks ago she latched on immediately the first time we nursed. The lactation nurse came by, asked if we had any questions, and left. She is the same nurse that taught me how to BF DS1. Well, in the back of my mind I have questioned DD's latch. I didn't really think much of it though bc she has lots of wet diapers and seems to swallow plenty of milk. This morning was the first time I woke up and my boobs weren't full and hurting. They felt soft, just like regular boobs. And although DD has had plenty of wet diapers today she isn't acting satisfied. Cluster feeding all.day. Long.
Here's my question, if she has had an improper latch since birth, almost two weeks now, would this cause me to dry up literally over night? I just have her a
Bottle of thawed BM cried while feeding her. Also, Is it necessary to pump if I have regular supply? I know I should pump now since I feel I'm having supply issues but do I need to pump if things were going as planned? I'm so scared that I've dried up. The though of formula feeding DD is making me sick to my stomach.... Please tell me it's going to be ok?

Re: Is it possible to dry up from improper latch?

Here's my question, if she has had an improper latch since birth, almost two weeks now, would this cause me to dry up literally over night?

Improper latch will harm milk production if it is preventing baby from nursing efficiently. But milk does not spontaneously dry up over night from this, or from anything, except maybe some hormonal based birth control methods.

It is not necessary to pump if your baby is nursing frequently and effectively. But if you supplement, even with your own expressed milk, you need to pump to make up for the supplemental feeding. This is how just one bottle can send breastfeeding right off the rails. .

Don’t cause yourself problems. Put away the frozen milk and nurse more often. Why do you think the latch is off?

Re: Is it possible to dry up from improper latch?

Forget how the latch looks. Concentrate on how it feels, and on diaper output. When the latch feels okay and baby is peeing/pooping enough, things are probably fine. And as LLLMeg said, put away the frozen milk and just nurse, nurse, nurse! Let your baby's cluster feeding do the job of establishing your supply at the right level. You don't need to feel full or engorged in order to have enough milk. In fact, feeling full/engorged all the time means you have too much milk, and that's not something you want to do in the long term because it's a waste of energy and puts you at increased risk for plugged ducts and mastitis. What you want is to make the right amount of milk- and when you do that, it's completely normal to feel soft all the time.

Re: Is it possible to dry up from improper latch?

Honestly, her wet/poopy diapers are great. No changes there. I think as breatfeeding/nursing mamas, our biggest fear is to not be able to properly nourish our babies the way our bodies were intended to. I'm sitting here in the rocking chair with her now, she just had a good feeding and I could hear and see her swallowing which I wasn't seeing much of yesterday or last night during the night. Hopefully things are on the up again. I'm just going to continue nursing her every chance I get. Thank you for your advice. Oh, how long should she be staying on the breast at this age? She's two weeks old today....

Re: Is it possible to dry up from improper latch?

Anyone who gives you artificial time limits for how long your baby should be nursing or how often she should be nursing has no idea what they're talking about. Feeding duration and frequency varies widely, even among very young babies. My first newborn needed about 45 minutes to get a full feeding, my second got the job done in about 10 minutes.

Re: Is it possible to dry up from improper latch?

just nurse. Get into a comfortable position and nurse nurse nurse. New research suggests that the insistence on a "Deep" or "asymmetric" latch is not always needed. Some babies get plenty while "nipple nursing." As long as it does not hurt you and baby is getting milk (which you tell by weight gain and poops, not baby behavior so much,) then the latch is great. Seeing baby swallow when nursing is also a very good and reassuring sign of course.

When you doubt yourself, remember this: Until very recently, all human mothers for all of human history nursed their babies. All mammals nurse their babies. Throughout history, exclusively nursing a baby is/was unremarkable and typical and usually went just fine. If breastfeeding and milk supply was so fragile, why are humans and other mammals so successful from a species survival/evolutionary standpoint?

You are absolutely right, often the biggest hurdle when breastfeeding is a mom’s confidence. As mothers we doubt ourselves not because breastfeeding is in any way organically fragile but due to misleading and inaccurate information out there about nursing and what is normal feeding behavior in infants. (bottle/formula feeding is where all the timing and sceduling stuff came from.) We have been taught to doubt ourselves by decades of society wide unnecessary & unhealthy reliance on formula to feed all or at least most human babies, rather than only those few babies who truly needed such intervention.